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The "category of Action":
The quantum has been regarded as a single genus on the ground
that Quantity and Number are attributes of Substance and
posterior to it; the quale has been regarded as another genus
because Quality is an attribute of Substance: on the same
principle it is maintained that since activity is an attribute of
Substance, Action constitutes yet another genus.
Does then the action constitute the genus, or the activity from
which the action springs, in the same way as Quality is the genus
from which the quale is derived? Perhaps activity, action and
agent should all be embraced under a single head? But, on the one
hand, the action- unlike activity- tends to comport the agent;
and on the other, it signifies being in some activity and
therefore Being-in-Act [actual as distinct from potential Being].
Consequently the category will be one of Act rather than of
Action.
Act moreover incontestably manifests itself in Substance, as was
found to be the case with Quality: it is connected with Substance
as being a form of motion. But Motion is a distinct genus: for,
seeing that Quality is a distinct attribute of Substance, and
Quality a distinct attribute, and Relative takes its being from
the relation of one substance to another, there can be no reason
why Motion, also an attribute of Substance, should not also
constitute a distinct genus.
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